Chapter 457: The Power of Supercapitals
The Alliance Military’s consecutive defeats had made the insectoids think of them as weak and easily bullied. They believed that the courage of humans was as weak as their bodies. Some of them even joked that this attack on the Panhuman Alliance was the easiest campaign in insectoid history. This was nothing more than an ordinary drill. What war?
However, today, the Alliance had undergone a complete reversal, seemingly determined to hold the Westwind Defense Line until the very end. In truth, that really was what it was doing. For the first time in the campaign, both sides had similar losses. The Alliance Military had not allowed a single insectoid wars.h.i.+p to get one step past the Westwind Defense Line.
General Tanini was starting to get impatient. The insectoids were famous throughout the universe for their impatience. While Tanini had superior patience compared to most of his race, it had been unable to survive the first twenty-four hours of the battle. Tanini was the one who had drafted the plan to surround the Westwind Defense Line and eat away at the humans slowly. One day pa.s.sed, then General Tanini seemingly found progress rather slow. Thus, he discarded the plan and decided to mobilize his main force to push straight through.
Nearly one thousand fleets, protected by their enormous capital s.h.i.+ps, rapidly advanced. For a moment, the battlefield was resounding with cannon fire. The sudden barrage instantly caused several of the Alliance’s asteroid fortresses to fall, but at this moment, the insectoid fleets unexpectedly stopped their barrage.
Tai, seeing this on the virtual projection of the battlefield, immediately made his decision. It was time for the Alliance’s only supercapital fleet, Freedom Cavalry, to move out!
The insectoid expedition’s main fleet’s capital s.h.i.+p Sacred Glory.
“Who can tell me what is going on here?! Anyone?!” Tanini gripped his head in anger as he yelled.
“This is impossible! Brother Uti is the smartest insectoid in history! How could he just die like that?!”
The expedition generals and advisors kept their heads low and said nothing, allowing General Tanini to rage.
After a round of cursing, Tanini seemed to tire. He sat in his chair and gasped for breath, but his eyes appeared like they were about to spit fire.
At this moment, a communications soldier cried in alarm, “General, the Alliance Military is on the move! They’ve gone past their defensive line and are preparing to fight us directly!”
Tanini savagely kicked a chair next to him and stood up. “Perfect! I can kill a few of those accursed humans as a funeral offering to Brother Uti! Transmit my orders: All units, charge! Destroy this d*mn defensive line and all those despicable humans! Leave no survivors!”
*Rumble!*
The cannons roared again, and more than one thousand capital s.h.i.+ps led the charge. Behind them were the fleets consisting of battles.h.i.+ps, cruisers, and frigates.
The humans had mobilized fast response divisions primarily consisting of battles.h.i.+ps, and their strength was far inferior to the insectoid fleets. At the first exchange of fire, one-third of the Alliance’s side was destroyed, and the force hastily retreated to the defensive line.
The frenzied General Tanini refused to give up the chase, ordering his fleets to charge and pursue the enemy right up to the defensive line.
The Westwind Defense Line was arranged into a concave. As the insectoid fleets entered the center, they unwittingly placed themselves under the fire of all the asteroid fortresses.
Suddenly—
A ma.s.sive flas.h.i.+ng appeared on the radar signal, and a communications soldier urgently reported, “General, a human fleet has appeared behind us via warping! Their signal indicates that the enemy s.h.i.+ps are ma.s.sive, several dozen times larger than our capital s.h.i.+ps!”
Tanini was taken aback. Gritting his teeth, he ordered, “Have the fleets on our flanks move to intercept the enemies’ rear a.s.sault. The main fleet should continue advancing. Don’t stop, not even for a minute!”
“General, this fleet has been verified as Freedom Cavalry!” the communications soldier nervously reported.
Supercarriers were a type of s.h.i.+p unique to the Panhuman Alliance. These s.h.i.+ps were several dozen times larger than ordinary carriers and were the largest s.h.i.+ps in the universe. The insectoids had been extremely apprehensive of Freedom Cavalry, this fleet of supercapitals, and had thought of every possible means to destroy it. Alas, in this entire war, Freedom Cavalry had never appeared. Finally, during the battle of the Westwind Defense Line, Freedom Cavalry had taken off its mysterious veil, but General Tanini was rather surprised that it had appeared at their rear.
“At our rear?” Tanini muttered.
“General, on our flanks and in front is a defense line of asteroids fortresses, and behind us is the humans’ Freedom Cavalry! This is a cla.s.sic encirclement!” an insectoid advisor frantically said.
Supercapitals were terrifying existences, and ordinary wars.h.i.+ps would never be able to contend against them. However, at this moment, all the insectoid capital s.h.i.+ps were gathered at the front and were attacking the fortresses. Their rear defenses were comparatively empty.
Tanini forced himself out of the sorrow that had come from Uti’s death. The facts were right in front of him. While there were not many supercapitals, if they were used properly, they could deal a ma.s.sive wound to the expedition army.
At this moment, Feimu opened the door and walked in. Tanini glared at him.
“Where have you been? Couldn’t you see there’s a battle going on?”
Feimu sternly said, “General, I have an urgent matter to report to you at once.”
He walked up to Tanini and whispered, “General, send my regards to Uti.”
*s.h.i.+nk!*
The crystalline blue dagger shot out of Feimu’s sleeve and plunged into Tanini’s chest. The dagger went in through the front, half of its blade protruding out of Tanini’s back. In a flash, the image of that black longhorn beetle had turned red.
…
The sixty supercarriers of Freedom Cavalry had joined with thirty support attack fleets, 279 dreadnoughts, and 385 ordinary carriers to form a ma.s.sive, powerful offensive fleet.
They emerged at the rear of the expedition army and blazed a trail through it!
*Rumble!*
The dreadnoughts used their formidable firepower, and when they activated their siege modules, their cannons managed to destroy one battles.h.i.+p with each volley!
Siege modules were also called desperation modules, for once they were activated, a dreadnought would be unable to move or warp for a very long time. They were stuck in place and could only fire from their position. Even if the enemies attacked, they could not dodge, only take the attacks.
The dreadnoughts had activated their siege modules from the start of the battle, meaning that they had no intention of coming back alive. All they needed to do was keep firing and firing until the s.h.i.+ps were destroyed!
The carriers released their iron cavalry combat drones. Each iron cavalry combat drone had the defense and firepower of a frigate. A regular carrier could release 150 iron cavalry combat drones, and 385 carriers meant 57,750 drones!
However, this was not even the most terrifying part. Be it the desperate dreadnoughts or the carriers releasing numerous iron cavalry drones, both were just the supporting acts in this battle.
The true main force for this a.s.sault was the supercarriers!
Each of the supercarriers could release two thousand iron cavalry bomber drones!
Iron cavalry combat drones and iron cavalry bomber drones had similar names. The short form name of the former was the iron cavalry while the short form name of the latter was the iron bomber. However, the difference between these two kinds of drones was like heaven and earth.
The iron cavalry’s offensive power was the equivalent of a frigate, but the iron bomber had the power of a battles.h.i.+p! Plus, they were faster! Nimbler!
When an iron bomber got close to an enemy wars.h.i.+p, it would fire a single torpedo. Two thousand iron bombers firing their torpedoes in unison created a grandiose sight, like a downpour in the middle of a pitch-black night. Anyone who saw this would not hope to be the side being attacked. This was just how terrifying they were.
Whether it was the dreadnoughts, the iron cavalry of the carriers, or the iron bombers of the supercarriers, they all shared one trait: They had no regard for their lives!
Dreadnoughts existed to fight with their lives on the line, and drones were controlled by computers, so neither knew nothing about fear!
The news of Uti’s death had thrown General Tanini into disarray, but Tanini had soon followed Uti in death. The expedition army quickly fell into a leaderless state.
The supercarriers of Freedom Cavalry would not relinquish this ideal opportunity to attack. They attacked the expedition army from the rear, destroying any insectoid wars.h.i.+ps in their path.
Only the capital s.h.i.+ps could fight back against the concentrated a.s.sault of the supercarriers. The fleets made from battles.h.i.+ps and cruisers could only serve as cannon fodders. The insectoid capital s.h.i.+ps were already pinned down by the asteroid fortresses in front of them and could not move. Moreover, the clumsy capital s.h.i.+ps would take some time to turn around.
…
Six hours later.
“The insectoid cabinet’s meeting ended. It’s decided that the five Cabinet Elders, led by Qingliu, will temporarily a.s.sume control of the Golden Tent. As for the master of the Golden Tent, this will be formally announced in seventy-two hours. The b.u.t.terfly patriarch, Qingliu, is a member of the anti-war faction. I presume that the Alliance will quickly receive the insectoids’ truce request,” Xia Fei calmly said.
Tai nodded. He was not in the habit of asking whether this information was verified or not, for it had been proved time and again that every piece of information from Xia Fei was true and extremely valuable.
“As for that sudden turmoil in the insectoid fleets that you spoke of, I investigated it. It turns out that the commander of the expedition, General Tanini, was a.s.sa.s.sinated six hours ago.”
‘a.s.sa.s.sinated? At the very moment we chose to counterattack? Isn’t that too much of a coincidence?’ Tai muttered to himself. “Are you also connected to this matter?”
Xia Fei smiled. “Marshal, I just happened to know a little inside information. As for Tanini being suddenly a.s.sa.s.sinated, I truly had no idea.”
Tai sipped his tea. “Uti died, and not long after, his brother died as well. It’s not normal at all. I didn’t mean anything by it. I was just asking.”
“What’s the state of the Westwind Defense Line?” Xia Fei changed the topic. He was unwilling to discuss his experience with the insectoids too much.
“The battle is still ongoing. The supercapitals were able to seize the momentary turmoil in the insectoid fleets to attack from the rear, wiping out a third of the insectoid fleets in one fell swoop. The balance of battle is slowly tipping in our favor. The insectoids only have capital s.h.i.+ps left. Those big fellows are powerful, but they’re not very agile. Without the ordinary s.h.i.+ps’ support, it’ll be difficult for them to display their full might.”
Xia Fei waved his hand and made a slicing motion with his hand. “The insectoid expedition army will soon receive the order to retreat. I don’t think that we can let the insectoids’ primary fleet return. Do they think that they could just come and go as pleased? Our Panhuman Alliance will appear too weak and abusable if we let that happen.
“Of course, when it comes to military matters, I’m merely a layman just voicing my thoughts.”
Tai firmly nodded. “I can understand your mindset. If possible, I will do everything I can to kill every one of those invaders. When do you plan to return to the Alliance?”
Xia Fei replied, “When this d*mn war is over, of course. Oh, right. I wish to request something from you.”
“What is it?”
“A capital s.h.i.+p license.”
“A capital s.h.i.+p? Xia Fei, when did you get your hands on a capital s.h.i.+p?”
Xia Fei smiled. “I don’t have one now, but when I get back to the Alliance, I will.”